In St Paul, the Vancouver Canucks were tied with the Wild on Thursday night heading to the third period, 3-3.
Minnesota scored three unanswered goals in the final frame for a 6-3 win.
Minnesota improved to 49-21-7.
Cam Talbot,made 21 saves in the Wild win.
“I’d be lying if I said [that milestone] didn’t (mean something to me),” Talbot said. “The road that I took, the perseverance, the dedication, a lot went into making it this far. These milestones, you kind of have a chance to look back and reflect on stuff like that and the journey along the way.
“Like you said, the biggest part tonight was the big two points for our group. It’s just another big win for us.”
Elias Pettersson hit for a pair of goals for the Canucks.
“Of course, I’m happy with that personally, but I’d rather trade it for a win today,” Pettersson said.
Kevin FIala scored his second of the night for a 4-3 lead to the Wild.
“[Fiala’s] playing right, that’s for sure,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “He’s got a lot of confidence, obviously. Again, what we like is he’s been a great teammate through it all and he’s done a lot of things defensively, verbally on the bench, penalty kill, in all areas of the game. I guess it’s one thing to be on a heater individually scoring goals, but you still have to do a lot of things to allow your team to have success. He’s doing a lot of those as well.”
Kirill Kaprizov hit for a goal in the third for a 5-3 lead, and Ryan Hartman scored a late empty-net goal for the 6-3 final.
Vancouver dropped to 38-29-11.
“It’s obviously tough. We understand what that [loss] means,” Vancouver’s Connor Garland said. “Tough to be tied against probably one of the top two, three teams in the Western Conference in the third period, and we just couldn’t find a way to get it done. It [stinks], but they’re a great team. They played real well. We just couldn’t find a way to get that fourth one.”
Mats Zuccarello and Jared Spurgeon scored for the Wild in the middle stanza when both teams traded three-goal outbursts.
“I mean, (I have) a lot of confidence in us all, to be honest,” Fiala said. “Personally, it’s nice to have a peak now instead of in the first few games. So I’d rather have it now, (but there’s) still five more games. Very important five more games for us, and personally for everybody to just play good, feel good and just have the good feeling to go into playoffs.”
Matthew Highmore added a single marker for the Canucks who lost a chance to gain ground in the wild card chase in the Western Conference.
“They give it everything they have,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. “You look at tonight, for example. (J.T.) Miller’s blocking a shot, he’s got a couple ice bags on. (Brad) Richardson breaks his nose and still wants to play. That’s the kind of effort and character that these guys have. I’m very proud of them. They never quit. They never die. So obviously tonight was very disappointing at the end, but the fact that they could have given up a long time ago, the odds were so against us. But they believed, and they still believe. They’ll believe again tomorrow. Until it shows that we’re eliminated, I’m sure these guys are going to keep pushing right to the end.”
Thatcher Demko made 26 saves in the Canucks loss.
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